Solving Operational Business Intelligence with InfoSphere Warehouse Advanced Edition

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8.4 Implementing Optim High Performance Unload as

part of your recovery strategy

IBM InfoSphere Optim High Performance Unload for DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and

Windows is a high-speed tool for unloading, extracting, and repartitioning data in

DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows databases. Optim High Performance Unload

has additional uses in data migration and repartitioning, which are discussed in

Chapter 9, “Managing data lifecyle with InfoSphere Warehouse” on page 335.

The database is not affected by the Optim High Performance Unload process

because the Optim High Performance Unload can bypass the DB2 software

layer and access backup images and table space containers directly. Table

spaces do not need to be placed in an offline state, although you might want to

flush data from the buffer pool to disk; remember Optim High Performance

Unload does not read or replay transaction logs. Optim High Performance

Unload can therefore offer advantages over other recovery methods in both data

availability and processing speed.

The Optim High Performance Unload utility uses a command-line interface with a

control file to perform the data unload operation. The control file is created using

the following control blocks:

򐂰 GLOBAL block contains instructions for the entire control file.

򐂰 UNLOAD block contains instructions about how data is to be unloaded.

򐂰 MIGRATE block contains instructions about how data is to be migrated from

one database to another, as explained in Chapter 9, “Managing data lifecyle

with InfoSphere Warehouse” on page 335.

To avoid any database connections to the production database when using

Optim High Performance Unload, retain a backup image of the database catalog

on disk for use with Optim High Performance Unload. The best practice is to

perform a full backup of the catalog database partition on a daily basis and keep

a copy of the backup image on local disk.

8.4.1 Optim High Performance Unload with backup images

Optim High Performance Unload directly reads backup images created by DB2

or by DB2 Merge Backup. Use the following method when transactional integrity

is required and where ETL processes are continuously in operation:

򐂰 Use online backup images only when you are certain that no transactions

took place against the objects you are unloading during the most recent

online backup.